Fords Down Under

Thanks to Alex, you have had a taste of sports at Melbourne University. Like Alex, I am also on a sports team. I’m playing volleyball (not rugby because I like being in one piece too much). Unlike Alex, I’m on a college team that is comprised of all students, all of which do not necessarily go to the University of Melbourne but have to reside in a college. Let me explain.

The University of Melbourne has all the academic buildings and sports facilities. Housing, however, is slightly separated from the University itself because most students live at home with their parents and commute to Uni while others prefer to live in apartments nearby and the rest live in colleges. The University of Melbourne is affiliated with eleven undergraduate colleges. Each of these colleges are self-governed and provide students living there with housing, meals, educational support (tutorials are required for first years), events and activities, including sports. Students do not have to attend the University of Melbourne to live there. Colleges offer many sports such as Australian football (or footy), netball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, badminton and many others. The college’s sports teams compete against each other.

I am on the International House volleyball team. We played our two first games the week of the 5^th of May. Our games were unfortunately at 7am, meaning we had to get up at 5:45am. I, like many other players, could not believe we actually made it to the games. Each game was played out of three sets (best of three wins). We played against Ormond college and Newman college, both of which we beat. This allowed us to get to the quarter finals. All final matches (quarter, semi and real finals) are played out of five sets. We played Queens college for our quarter finals which we beat three sets to nothing in 40 minutes. Luckily this was the last game we would have to wake up at 5:45am to play. Our semi-final game will be held on Sunday the 18^th of May against Whitley college and provided we beat them, we will move on to the finals that afternoon. On Friday the 16^th we found out that the team we were most apprehensive to play was eliminated by no other than Ormond college (the first team we beat). Apparently Ormond college has stepped up its game and we think we will have to play them again in the finals, provided we both make it. These girls are pretty intimidating in that their shortest player is the size of our tallest player. I’ll keep you updated on the outcome of our games! Wish us luck! =)

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 10:24 pm by Theonie and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.